Note: Accessible Archives migrated to the History Commons platform in 2024
Developed by dedicated instructors and students of American history, Accessible Archives provides access to diverse primary source materials reflecting broad views across American history and culture. Eyewitness accounts of historical events, vivid descriptions of daily life, editorial observations, commerce as seen through advertisements, and genealogical records have been assembled into comprehensive collections from leading books, newspapers and periodicals. Collections include:

• African American Newspapers
• America and World War I: American Military Camp Newspapers, Parts I and II
• American County Histories
• Anatomy of Protest in America
• The Canadian Observer, 1914-1919
• The Civil War Collection
• Frank Leslie's Weekly
• Godey's Lady's Book Complete Collection (Parts I-IX)
• History of Woman Suffrage
• The Lily
• The Pennsylvania Gazette
• The Pennsylvania Genealogical Catalogue
• Quarantine and Disease Control in America
• Reconstruction of Southern States: Pamphlets
• Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman
• South Carolina Newspapers
• Twelve Years a Slave
• The Virginia Gazette
• The Woman's Tribune
• Women's Suffrage Collection

Featuring more than 130 fully searchable newspapers in 10 languages from 25 states—including many rare 19th-century titles—this online collection provides extensive coverage of many of the most influential ethnic groups in U.S. history. With an emphasis on Americans of Czech, French, German, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Jewish, Lithuanian, Polish, Slovak and Welsh descent, this unique resource will enable students and scholars to explore often-overlooked aspects of this nation’s history, politics and culture.

Contains primary source documents from the holdings of the United States National Archives relating to all aspects of American history, from the Revolutionary War, to the Civil War, WWI, WWII, Presidents, historical newspapers and naturalization documents. Highlights include Papers of the Continental Congress (1774-89), records of the Constitutional Convention, the Matthew B. Brady Collection of Civil War Photographs, and the Investigative Case Files of the Bureau of Investigation, 1908-1922.

Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980, represents the single largest compilation of Spanish-language newspapers printed in the U.S. during the 19th and 20th centuries. The distinctive collection features hundreds of Hispanic American newspapers, including many long scattered and forgotten titles published in the 19th century. It is based on the “Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project,” a national research effort directed by Nicolás Kanellos, Brown Foundation Professor of Hispanic Studies at the University of Houston. Including many newspapers published bilingually in Spanish and English, Hispanic American Newspapers, 1808-1980, offers a diversity of unabridged voices, ranging from intellectuals and literary notables to politicians, union organizers and grassroots figures. Available online for the first time, these American newspapers published by Hispanics can now be easily browsed, searched and read. Users can compare and contrast Hispanic views on nearly every major theme in American life, beginning in 1808 when the first Spanish-language newspaper in the United States was printed in New Orleans.

The American Jewish Newspapers collection enables researchers to investigate Jewish immigration, genealogy, history and so much more.

Jewish immigration exploded in the early 20th century as two million Eastern European Jews fled their homeland into the United States in search of labor. As Jews helped transform American culture, so too, America transformed Jewish thought and reformed their religious practice. The Historical Newspapers: American Jewish Newspapers collection enables researchers to investigate the rise of Zionism and the formation of U.S. policies toward the state of Israel, complemented by Historical Newspaper titles, including The Guardian and the soon to be available Jerusalem Post. Public libraries with large Jewish populations would also have interest in these titles for local history and genealogical research.

American Jewish Newspapers is comprised of four historical U.S. Jewish newspapers.

• The American Hebrew & Jewish Messenger (1857-1922). The American Hebrew was a weekly Jewish newspaper published in New York City. In 1903 it merged with the Jewish Messenger. The paper covered many topics of Jewish interest internationally. Many prominent Jewish writers and communal workers in the United States have been contributors to its pages.
• The Jewish Advocate (1905-1990). The Jewish Advocate serves as a primary source of news and information as well as a forum for discussion and debate, providing lines of communication uniting the community and supporting the efforts aimed at reinvigorating and broadening Jewish religious and cultural life.
• The American Israelite (1854-1922). The American Israelite is the longest-running English-language Jewish newspaper still published in the United States. The newspaper's two goals were to spread the principles of Reform Judaism, and to keep American Jews in touch with Jewish affairs and their religious identity.
• Jewish Exponent (1887-1990). The Jewish Exponent has carried news of developments in Israel, efforts to rescue Jews the world world over from repressive regimes, and the ever-expanding role of Jews in American public life. Along the way, it has garnered honors each year from the American Jewish Press Association for excellence in Jewish journalism for its news, features, reviews and commentary.

ProQuest Historical Newspapers-Black Newspapers offers primary source material essential to the study of American history and African-American culture, history, politics, and the arts. Examine major movements from the Harlem Renaissance to Civil Rights, and explore everyday life as written in over a half dozen historical African-American newspapers.

• Atlanta Daily World (1932-2003) -The Atlanta Daily World had the first black White House correspondent and was the first black daily in the nation in the 20th century. The
• Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988) -The most widely circulated black newspaper on the Atlantic coast (includes the Afro-American ledger). It was the first black newspaper to have correspondents reporting on World War II, foreign correspondents, and female sports correspondents.
• Chicago Defender (1909-1975) -A leading African-American newspaper, with more than two-thirds of its readership outside Chicago.
• Cleveland Call & Post (1934-1991) -Founded by Garrett Morgan, inventor of the gas mask and traffic light. Contributors included noted journalists Charles H. Loeb and John Fuster. The newspaper is well known for its support of the Scottsboro trial defendants with letters, clothing, stamps, and donations to the defense fund.
• Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2005) -The oldest and largest black newspaper in the western United States and the largest African-American owned newspaper in the U.S.
• New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993) -This leading Black newspaper of the 20th century reached its peak in the 1940s. The Amsterdam News was a strong advocate for the desegregation of the U.S. military during World War II, and also covered the historically important Harlem Renaissance.
• The Norfolk Journal and Guide (1921-2003) -This was the only black newspaper to provide on-the-scene, day-to-day coverage of the Scottsboro trial, and was one of the best researched and well written black newspapers of its time. The
• Philadelphia Tribune (1921-2001) -The oldest continuously published black newspaper is dedicated to the needs and concerns of the fourth largest black community in the U.S. During the 1930s the paper supported the growth of the United Way, rallied against the riots in Chester, PA, and continuously fought against segregation.
  
• Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2010) -One of the most nationally circulated Black newspapers, the Courier reached its peak in the 1930s. A conservative voice in the African-American community, the Courier challenged the misrepresentation of African-Americans in the national media and advocated social reforms to advance the cause of civil rights.

The trench journals and unit magazines of the First World War are a unique source of information on the common serviceman and womans experience of the war. These magazines were written by and for every type of unit from every combatant nation. As such they contain the hitherto unheard voices of hundreds of thousands of men and women writing from every facet of the conflict.

They were written and illustrated by service personnel from a huge variety of units: the infantry, artillery, air force, naval, supply and transport units, military hospitals and training depots of all combatant nations including America, Britain, Germany, Canada, France, Australia and New Zealand. Although the majority of journals that have survived originate from units based on the Western Front in France and Belgium, there are also magazines from units serving on the Eastern Front, in Gallipoli, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, Britain and America.

Commonly referred to as providing a voice to the unit, they are filled with what mattered most to the unit that created it. As such they served to create a sense of esprit de corps and a means of raising the spirits of the unit through humorous stories, poems, jokes and parodies. They also served to document the units circumstances and experiences and so accounts and memoirs of a more individual history of the war and the units part in it feature prominently in many journals. As a means of offering an outlet for literary or creative expression, the trench journals were hugely important to their contributors. The magazines contain a vast and previously unrecognised corpus of war poetry written by a multitude of hitherto unknown poets which acts as a vital counterpoint to the more established authors who emerged from the War.

This collection contains over 1,500 trench journal titles sourced from leading archives around the world including those of the Imperial War Museums and The British Library.